Using Reddit To Draw Traffic

Updated on October 25, 2014

With Facebook and Twitter receiving all the attention of entrepreneurs who want to drive traffic to their blog, people often tend to forget social media like Reddit and its potential to get thousands and even millions of readers to your website or blog.

What is Reddit and how does Reddit work?

Reddit is essentially a social bookmarking site. It uses a bulletin board system that lets you share links to your posts. Depending on how much of an impact the content you share has, other members vote up or down on the submission. The voting system determines where your post ends up on the rank of popular posts, as well as its position on the Reddit pages and front page.

How can entrepreneurs benefit from Reddit traffic?

Reddit is excellent for keeping people engaged with your brand. Every time you receive an up-vote for your post, you earn a Karma point. The higher your Karma points, the more visibility your posts have. You lose Karma points if you get a down-vote (on a post you've shared or a comment). When submitting a post, Reddit asks you to choose a category for it. The advantage of Reddit over other similar social bookmarking sites is that it offers categories (called subreddits) for a wide range of subjects, from personal finance to health, technology to 'explain like im five', and from news to science. This narrows down your audience based on their interests, and lets you target your posts at the readership you want. You can also create a subreddit for a topic of your choice.

Reddit is a hotbed of great, shareable content, which is what makes it very advantageous for entrepreneurs who want to be talked about and build credibility. It's the source of a majority of the Internet's viral content, memes and shareable posts.

What is popular on Reddit?

If you look through the Reddit pages, you'll see that the most popular posts are a bizarre lot. 'Test post, please ignore', which was nothing but a test post, generated enough curiosity that it led to a discussion and put it on the list of the top five most popular posts of all time in the community. Most of the other most voted posts are images, videos and other content that are funny, thought-provoking and often self-referential to some element of the Reddit culture.

What are some tips for using Reddit to boost traffic to your website?

· Sign up, and spend some time reach day reading the comments on the top posts to see what people are talking about. Reddit can be self-referential in a way that Twitter or Facebook cannot. You may not be able to figure out the community culture in a day or two, but give it some time and the culture will become familiar.

· Use eye-catching titles to draw people into discussions. Share occasional images and videos, since these receive the most views.

· Be active in the community and promote the links of your potential audience. Your Reddit Friends can also help generate traffic. Identify members who you think may be interested in the content you share, and add them as friends. You can then ask them for comments and votes on your own posts or subreddit.

Share content that you think is viral-worthy, and get known among Reddit members as a content curator. This will enhance your credibility and draw more traffic to your website or blog. Understand how the system works and you can find the audience you are looking for, and attract them to your website. If you are patient and do it right, you can see significantly more hits on your website than ever before.

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